NLRB Backs Union Strike Position in TWC/AFL-CIO Appeals

A U.S. District judge was right to deny enforcement of an arbitrator prohibition of future strikes by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, AFL-CIO, Local Union No. 3, said the National Labor Relations Board in an intervenor brief (in Pacer) filed Thursday with the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The Supreme Court has said a waiver of strike rights usually doesn't survive expiration of the contract that the waiver is in, NLRB said, saying if the court agrees with the agency's ruling that no valid contract between the union and Time Warner Cable contained a waiver of employees' right to strike, then the arbitrator had no legal basis for prohibiting future strikes. NLRB said it wasn't taking a position on the monetary part of the judgment that Local 3 is appealing or on whether Local 3 waived its right to contest the arbitrator's jurisdiction when it took part in the arbitration proceedings. Local 3 is appealing a U.S. District Court in Brooklyn ruling upholding those arbitrator awards, and the company is cross-appealing the portion of the Brooklyn court's judgment that denied confirmation of part of a 2015 final arbitration award ordering the union to refrain from further violations (see 1608300029). TWC, now owned by Charter Communications, didn't comment.